In a wireless communication network such as a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication network, an Access Service Network (ASN) forms the radio access network. The ASN includes one or more ASN-controllers and a plurality of Base Stations (BSs). The plurality of BSs further communicate with a plurality of Mobile Stations (MSs). Each ASN-controller interfaces with one or more BSs in the ASN. The ASN enables functions such as Radio Resource Management (RRM), load balancing and Handover Management (HOM) for efficient communication in the wireless communication network.
In RRM, parameters related to radio transmission between the one or more BSs are controlled. These parameters for example, can be, transmitting power, channel allocation, load balancing criteria, handover criteria, modulation scheme and error coding scheme. RRM enables effective utilization of the radio spectrum and network resources during communication in a wireless communication network. On the basis of RRM and requirements in the wireless communication network, the Handover Management (HOM) of the resources is performed.
These functions are enabled using various existing profile architectures in the wireless communication network. Two of these profile architectures are the profile A (centralized) and the profile C (distributed) architectures. The profile A is a centralized architecture where the ASN-controller includes an RRC and a BS in the wireless communication network includes a Radio Resource Agent (RRA). A RRA reports about the spare capacity and PHY requirements of the corresponding BS to the RRC in the ASN-controller. Based on the information, the RRC performs RRM and HOM in a centralized manner. However, the profile A results in heavy overloading of the ASN-controller. Additionally, the profile A architecture is less efficient in catering services of many vendors in the wireless communication network to the one or more MSs because this overloads the ASN-controller.
Contrary to the profile A, the profile C is a distributed architecture where each BS of the plurality of BSs includes a RRC operatively coupled with an RRA. The ASN-controller includes a Radio Resource Relay (RRR). In the Profile C, a RRC in a BS interacts only with one or more RRCs in one or more neighboring BSs. This interaction may be facilitated by the RRR in the ASN-GW. Therefore, a BS in the profile C architecture only has information (for example, spare capacity) corresponding to one or more neighboring BSs. As a result of this, during a handover, a BS may be simultaneously transferred load by two BS. The two BSs are neighbors of the BS but do not interact with each other. This may result in over-loading the BS, which earlier had spare capacity.
In another scenario, a BS is overloaded and corresponding one or more neighboring BSs do not have any spare capacity. As a result, the BS may remain overloaded as the BS is not able to handover one or more MSs to the one or more neighboring BSs. Additionally, the profile C architecture requires extra backhauls for the transfer of information between BSs served by the ASN-controller in the wireless communication network.
There is a therefore, a need for a method and system for communication in the wireless communication network using an architecture which facilitates communication between the BSs served by ASN-controller by avoiding overload at the ASN gateway. Also the method and system should facilitate efficient load balancing amongst the BSs without using extra backhauls.
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